Unit 1 Course Introduction
Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels
Overview
This unit introduces you to the course materials and the concepts of employee engagement. You will gain fundamental knowledge in this course about employee, employee engagement, and stewardship, which will be the crucial foundation for your growth in this course. Later units will introduce other concepts related to these concepts.
This unit is divided into the following topics:
- Introduction of employment engagement;
- Engagement and loyalty of employees: a preamble.
Learning Outcomes
When you have completed this unit, you should be able to:
- Reflect critically upon engagement practices and stewardship responsibilities of leaders within an organization’s human resources (people), including addressing both task-related and people-related factors.
- Identify the needs of employees through observation and reflection.
- Reflect and discern on the components of effective communication that will help employees gain an understanding of their roles and responsibilities.
- Describe what Employee Engagement within an organization means and its benefits.
1.1 Introduction to Employee Engagement
Creating a great workplace that can motivate employees who know how to do their best for the organization/company and serve customers right is one of the most important tasks for any organization/company dedicated to Transformational Servant Leadership practices.
It is common sense that enthusiastic and energetic employees feel better about their work and workplace; however, engagement is not determined only by the employee’s subjective feelings. It is also about measuring employees’ satisfaction or happiness levels, as well as fulfillment of their wants and needs, and achieving the shared common goals of the organization/company.
Organizations have more success with engaged employees when they treat employees as stakeholders of the organization’s future. It means, for example, they focus on performance management activities, clarification of work expectations, supply resources to employees for getting jobs done properly, and promotion of positive work relationships and people development.
Most of the U.S. workforce (51%) is not engaged, according to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report (2013). These employees are indifferent and neither like nor dislike their job. They represent a risk, and the risk could cause something significantly negative for the organization when the unwanted event happens.
For some employees who are not engaged, they need a reason to be inspired. They are the “show me” group that needs an extra push to motivate them.
Please refer to the following section for your understanding of “what is employee engagement” and “how to make employee engagement happen” for your organization.
When used properly, employee engagement will result in providing the right conditions for employees of an organization to contribute to their full potential. Furthermore, throughout this unit, you will observe images, reflect on them, give a voice to the people shown, and express your ideas and views considering an environment and known and unknown conditions that might be affecting the individual.
According to our acquired concepts and the environment in which we grow, we create mental images of how things should look based on what we think and how they should behave, which can affect how we participate in an environment.
Next, you will be able to compare your mental image and the pre-learned concepts in contrast to the new learnings of this Topic.
Learning Activity: Observe and reflect - Identifying the needs of the employee
- In this learning activity, you will begin by looking at the following picture.
Photo by Marcus Aurelius from Pexels
- Next, respond to the following questions, you will use the information from your reflection to complete your assignment in Unit 2.
1.2 Engagement and Employee Loyalty: a preamble
As an organization grows, it is critical to measure how committed employees are to the company and how well they collaborate. The best way to determine if employees are engaged in their jobs is to check employee engagement and see whether your team-building activities and human resources practices are contributing to positive business results or if they need to be changed. According to Gallup research, only 15% of workers are engaged in their jobs. In other words, engaged employees are hard to find.
Engaged workers are known to exert discretionary effort, which distinguishes them from those who are disengaged. This group of employees works hard, goes above and beyond, and is dedicated to the company’s goals. They are innovators who make a difference to the company. Conversely, disengaged employees are less likely to commit to and engage with your company, and that is why they can negatively affect it. Apart from not enjoying their jobs, they intend to voice their displeasure. They occupy managers’ time and reduce sales. Engaged employees will solve problems, innovate, and acquire new customers, but actively disengaged employees will undermine those efforts.
The miracle drug for workplace challenges is employee engagement. It is said, when employees are loyal to an organization, they tend to bring benefits with them.
Image by: Mara Chequer
If you want to read more about how Employee Engagement decreases turnover/higher retention rate go to the following Link.
We will continue to explore employee engagement in the units that follow and how Stewardship practices can create loyalty within any organization. The concept of employee loyalty refers to employees who are committed to the success of their organization and believe that their involvement in such an organization is in their best interests.
Employee loyalty has many definitions and it is important that you are able to critically analyze the link between employee engagement, stewardship and loyalty. Generally, employee loyalty refers to the emotions that motivate employees to stay with their current employer and are less likely to look for better employment opportunities elsewhere.
Later, you will learn how loyalty is segmented, the levels of loyalty, and how they all work together to make a successful culture.
Think: Do you know of any organization that has loyal employees? What motivates them? In what way are they loyal?
Based on the assigned readings by Peters, in Chapter 1 (pp. 9-11), there is no single definition of employee engagement, but there is wide agreement that it is an emotional commitment to one’s work and a willingness to give of one’s best at work. It is how people feel about their work that determines their levels of energy, ownership, persistence, commitment and initiative.
Signs of high engagement include:
- the extent to which employees commit to achieving results and how hard they work;
- a passion and purpose for what they do and a sense that they are contributing to something bigger than themselves, i.e. they want to make a positive difference to something;
- how much initiative people take;
- a high level of innovation and effort to assist a company or unit in the company to reach its goals/strategy;
- the high, positive energy and enthusiasm with which people approach their work;
- the level of ownership and involvement with their work that people display;
- a willingness to take on a new challenge;
- a receptiveness and openness to change;
- the high standards people set for themselves in terms of their conduct at work, the quality of their work and the pride people take in their work;
- a focus on the customer or client and meeting their needs;
- efforts made to learn more about their field so they can do more and be more innovative;
- a willingness to be collaborative with colleagues in an effort to leverage others’ skills and the inputs that are needed to deliver a quality result or to solve a problem quickly;
- how long a person perseveres when things are not going well; and
- the extent to which people are prepared to “go the extra mile”. When employees care, i.e. when they are engaged, they put in the extra effort needed to resolve a customer’s problem, make sure the new process is working, or sort out a quality problem on the line. This is referred to as “discretionary effort”; it is the level of effort people could give if they wanted to, above and beyond the minimum required.
Critical Thinking: Do you know of any organization that has loyal employees? What motivates them? In what way are they loyal?
We will continue to explore employee engagement in the units that follow and how Stewardship practices can create loyalty within any organization.
Employee Loyalty
An employee who is loyal to their organization is one who is committed to its success and believes that participating in such an organization is in their best interests. The concept of employee loyalty refers to employees who are committed to the success of their organization and believe that their involvement in such an organization is in their best interests. Employee loyalty is a key component to successful employee engagement at the workplace.
Employee loyalty has many definitions and it is crucial that you are able to critically analyze the link between employee engagement, stewardship and loyalty. Generally, employee loyalty refers to the emotions that motivate employees to stay with their current employer so they are less likely to look for better employment opportunities elsewhere.
Later, you will learn how loyalty is segmented, the levels of loyalty, and how they all work together to make a successful culture.
Learning Activity: Observe and reflect - Pros and cons of employee engagement
- In this learning activity, you will begin by looking at the following picture.
Photo by fauxels from Pexels
- Next, respond to the following questions.
Learning Activity:Observe and reflect - The importance of Communication
- In this learning activity, you will begin by looking at the following picture to reflect on the importance of communication and its impact on employee engagement for your organization.
Photo by fauxels from Pexels
- Next, respond to the following questions.
Summary
Employee Engagement will continue to be debated as to what it is exactly, how to develop it, and what impact it has in the workplace. Throughout this unit, you have seen how it is prudent for management and organizations at all levels to consider the needs of their employees, and that this increased focus on employee engagement has a significant impact not only on the wellbeing of employees, but also on the performance of organizations. As well, you have been introduced to Employee Loyalty and the benefits it provides to an organization internally and ultimately to its customers and consumers.
An engaged workforce is not only good for employees, but also for customers and overall performance of businesses. (p.19).
References
- Peters, J. (2019). Chapter 1. Employee engagement: Creating high positive energy at work (eBook). KR Publishing company.
- Bridger, E. (2018). Chapter 1. Employee engagement: A practical introduction. Kogan Page Limited.
- LDRS 617 mini-lecture notes. Unpublished manuscript. Master of Arts in Leadership. Trinity Western University.